Right tool for the blog

Page Tools

From intimate secrets to thoughts on the new Pope, there's
almost no limit to what we'll share in online journals. Ask how to
blog, however, and be prepared for a bewildering choice of tools
and services.

At a net cafe in Nepal. At the cricket with a camera phone.
Where there's a will, there's a way to post. Most services allow
bloggers to post via web browsers, email, mobile phones and even
instant messaging.

Relative newcomer, MSN Spaces, lets members post from MSN
Messenger and keep tabs on the blogs of buddies. Expanding on the
buddy theme, Yahoo!'s 360 service is an effort to combine blogging
with "social networking".

Blogging is still at heart about letting web users put their
thoughts online - and there are essentially two kinds of blog tools
to do this - hosted and do-it-yourself. The DIY publishing systems,
such as MovableType and Word Press allow bloggers to have complete
control over the function, look and feel of their blogs, operating
everything themselves from their own servers.

A DIY blogger is a committed blogger, but for those who'd rather
not learn the ins and outs of their server, hosted services offer
respectable options with minimum fuss.

Hosted services, such as Blogger, TypePad, MSN Spaces,
SquareSpace and many others, allow users to have all the fun of
blogging, without the responsibility of learning how it works. They
simply log-in and update information that remains stored with the
provider. These services offer the quickest way for new users to
get started and there is little or no need for HTML knowledge.

Among the hosted systems, there are free services and those with
a price tag. While we might assume the commercial services to be
better, the enduring yardstick, by which most blog services are
measured is still Blogger, which started in 1999.

Today, Blogger is owned by Google. While there is a premium
service, the freebie continues to offer up-to-date features and is
a good starting point. Although it can't handle picture uploads
directly, Blogger uses Google's Picasa picture-sharing facility and
Hello service to post images to blogs. Starting off with a free
service such as this is a good way for newcomers to blogging to
experiment and get some idea of the commitment involved.

No prizes for guessing the freebie blog services are popular,
but fee-based services such as TypePad and SquareSpace also hold
their own. For a monthly subscription, they usually offer better
management, more elaborate templates or more customisation and
formatting options.

They are aimed at the slightly more sophisticated blogger and
perhaps small organisations that prefer to blog rather than
commission a regular website.

The pioneer of the bunch, Blogger is still setting the pace.
It's a good no-fuss system, free and the easiest to use. There are
good help files and it's ideal for beginners. Some of the
formatting could be better though, especially when combining text
and pictures in the same post. Blogger doesn't have its own picture
facility but Windows users can upload by using Picasa BloggerBot
and Mac fans can use online photo galleries Flickr and Buzznet to
post pics. If you don't want a home at blogspot.com, it's
relatively straightforward to direct the blog to your own website.
The on-hand templates are better these days and there are plenty of
blog "skins" available on the web.

To compete with the freebies, commercial services have to offer
a bit more. Fortunately, there's a 30-day trial. TypePad has a
richer experience than the other services, while remaining
flexible. In the same 10 minutes spent setting up their first blog
anywhere else, TypePad's fewer templates will probably look better,
with stylish combinations of layout. There are also small but
important touches, such as the easy ability to place text around an
image. It is possible to point your own domain name to the
service.

This is blogging for "grown ups". While the system allows for
blogging, it's also available for fully fledged websites and
discussion forums, so those with vague notions of an online media
empire, take note. You can point a domain name to the Squarespace
site and there's an extensive help section, which includes dealing
with providers. There's less choice in ready-made templates, but
more freedom to customise. Sophisticated controls include member
rights and privileges. This is a service you can trial for 30
days.

You will need a .Net passport to use this service. It's designed
to work with MSN Messenger and, keeping it in the family, only
works with Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. Once in the door,
this is easy to set up: everything is labelled "click here and
type". Spaces seems geared to a young audience. The drag-and-drop
layout allows users to move restrictive boxes of content around a
page. However, these can be dressed with 50 pretty "themes" that
can make boring text look better.

The verdict

For sheer value, you can't go past Blogger. Still free, still
easy and still providing features to keep most beginners and beyond
satisfied. For a few dollars, however, TypePad's service produces
great-looking sites, has slightly better formatting, better image
uploading and is just as easy to use.

Infofile

So you've signed up, picked a template and posted thoughts on
the importance of cult TV. But who will read your ramblings, if you
don't advise others of your blog's existence? Get listed with blog
directories such as Blogarama and Technorati.